L.A. County has lost track of thousands of probationers

Los Angeles County has lost track of about 2,000 prison realignment probationers under its supervision, which is a higher rate than most nearby counties.

High recidivism rates among this population of offenders, coupled with the sheer number of those under supervision, may have led to 1,844 criminals, or slightly more than 18 percent, of 10,142 being lost from the system, Los Angeles County Probation officials said last month.

San Bernardino County, by comparison, has one of the lowest rates, with 489, or about 6 percent, of its 7,485 prison realignment offenders having warrants out for their arrest.

Under the 2011 Assembly Bill 109, or prison realignment, the responsibility of monitoring lower-level offenders shifted from the state to county agencies to comply with a court order to reduce the state prison population and improve health conditions for inmates. These special type of probationers are classified as “post-release community supervision,” or PRCS.

The majority of these criminals came to Los Angeles County, probation officials.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the department that would have monitored this population of offenders prior to AB 109, acknowledges that prison realignment has lowered its number of parolees at large. Before the implementation of prison realignment, all offenders coming out of prison who required supervision would have been placed with state parole. Under AB 109, those state prisoners are either placed under state parole supervision or, if they qualify, are monitored by county probation departments.

As of late last month, state parole agents were monitoring 63,608 parolees. Of those, 6,525 parolees were not accounted for, or 10.25 percent of the total parolee population, according to corrections officials. This is a significant drop from a high in 1995 of 25 percent.

Sixty-two PRCS offenders have absconded and have warrants out for their arrest in Ventura County, said that county’s Chief Deputy Officer Patricia Olivares. That is about 12 percent of the total 506 AB 109 probationers supervised by the department.

At about 19 percent, Riverside County also has a high rate of PRCS probationers with warrants out for their arrest. However, Riverside County Chief Probation Officer Mark Hake says those numbers can be deceiving.

“That is the number of warrants, not necessarily the number of people who have absconded,” he explained. “Many times they pick two warrants for their arrest when they do abscond.”

As of early October, Riverside County Probation was tasked with supervising 1,892 PRCS offenders, and at that time there were 332 warrants out for absconded probationers.

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Los Angeles County Probation Assistant Chief Margarita Perez those who tend to reoffend or abscond are those with mental health and drug issues.

Perez has also said it’s the department’s aggressive monitoring that has led to a higher number of warrants being issued for AB 109 offenders.

“If an offender is designated as high risk and they fail to comply, an officer has 48 hours to put a warrant (for that offender) into the system,” Perez explained.

That was not the case, however, with 32-year-old Erick Balint, who was killed in an officer-involved shooting with Long Beach police on Sept. 25. After failing to show up for scheduled meetings with his probation officer in August and again in September, probation officers didn’t begin probation revocation procedures until mid-September.

Despite past convictions for possession of a firearm, domestic violence and theft, it’s not clear if Balint was classified as a higher-level offender. Long Beach police said Balint was placed on community supervision because his last conviction was considered to be a lower-level offense.

Some critics say Los Angeles County Probation was not ready for the number of PRCS probationers they were tasked with monitoring, pointing at hiring difficulties and a struggle with union leaders who say the policy of sending deputies out to do compliance checks — visits designed to inspect a probationer’s living situation — is dangerous.

With the passage of AB 109 in 2011, Los Angeles County set aside funds to hire 470 additional probation workers specifically to assist with the monitoring of PRCS probationers, but as of early this month, only about two-thirds of those positions have been filled.

While all California counties are dealing with the shift of offenders, Perez said if each department’s policies aren’t the same, then it’s hard to determine why one has a lower number of warrants out for PRCS probationers than another.

While the rates among the counties differ, authorities all agree that a major factor in keeping rates low is a partnership between probation and law enforcement agencies.

“We have formed a partnership with local police departments and the sheriff’s departments,” said Riverside’s Hake, adding that this synergy has helped with the clearing of 1,383 warrants since the implementation of AB 109, whether through capture or other means.

In Los Angeles County, a probation officer is assigned to the various AB 109 compliance teams formed by local law enforcement agencies including the Long Beach Police Department.

“There are several teams made up of various law enforcement agencies that are searching for them,” said Howard Wong, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Probation Department in a recent interview. “We have about 30 probation deputies working with these agencies as part of the teams, and we will be expanding those numbers.”

In Long Beach that teamwork has led to a better compliance rate than the county, with about 11 percent of its 537 PRCS probationers out with active warrants.

In San Bernardino and Ventura counties, each probation department has its own compliance check team that independently monitors all probationers and searches for those with warrants out for their arrest.

“We have three regional offices, and each one has a police officer or sheriff’s (deputy) that is attached to each team and they are constantly talking about who’s on warrants,” Ventura County’s Olivares said. “I think it’s the combined efforts of the probation and law enforcement teams.

“We do have a police officer assigned to our region, but we’re the ones that are tasked with managing this population for our region,” she said.

San Bernardino County Probation regularly conducts compliance check sweeps in various cities with the assistance of local law enforcement.

Chris Condon, spokesman for San Bernardino County Probation, credits that partnership as well a number of initiatives for keeping their number of lost PRCS probationers low, including a process for immediately contacting all probationers in a day-reporting center, making early referrals to treatment, vocational and other support programs, classifying them with an assessment tool to determine who is most likely to reoffend, coupled with in-field and home contacts.

Los Angeles County officials say they also use some of those programs, but since Los Angeles County receives the highest number of PRCS probationers of any county, that can mean a higher potential number of people who will abscond.

Los Angeles County Probation officials say they will continue to adapt to the needs of the PRCS population and the need to keep the public safe including working hand-in-hand with local law enforcement departments as well as offering all probationers services for rehabilitation, which are not readily available through state parole.

“We are really looking to help people rehabilitate,” Perez said. “That is the goal.”